Light Revealing Dirt

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”- Galatians 5:22-23

Why is there no law against such things? Should there be? The answer- no. What purpose would such a law serve? Laws do serve purposes don't they? Otherwise why have them at all. A sin is a transgression of the law. The law exists to determine a standard of existence for those who have the possibility of choice. Given a choice there has to be something to choose between, a freedom to choose. It is no good to say you have a choice if the two choices are one and the same thing. There has to be a difference for a choice to matter. If there were only chocolate muffins on a plate I have no choice but to choose a chocolate muffin - if in fact I had to choose a muffin and had no choice but to choose one.

When man was created they were created with the possibility of choosing. It gave them a freedom from being mere creature with only the ability to follow one way and one way only.

Some say we should never have been allowed a choice at all.

Without it though we are merely stick figures, dolls to toy with, unable to truly love our Creator because there would be no other choice but to love Him. Forced love.

Some say you have to love family, but is it true? No. There are many people that don't love their family, in fact many that despise them. You don't have to. You should perhaps, under ideal circumstances but you don't have to. Some people say mothers have to love their babes, and yet they don't have to. Again, under ideal circumstances they will, but they don't have to, they are not forced to do so.

We understand the laws of our society exist to keep society functioning peacefully as possible.
The laws of God exist to reveal Him to us, to reveal His ways, His love.

Reading this-- “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”- Galatians 5:22-23

We understand right away don't we?

Do we have a law against love? Joy? Peace? Longsuffering? Gentleness? Goodness? Faith? Meekness? Temperance?

No. None I know of. And who would ever seriously propose there should be laws against these things?

These things are the fruit of the Spirit.

If we have the Spirit indwelling in us as Jesus promised then the result of that indwelling - the fruit that grows- will be these *good* things, things there is no law against because they are God-ly things, they are right, they are just, they are wholesome.

Do you want to know if you have the Spirit dwelling in you, ask yourself how loving, how joyful, how peaceful, how longsuffering, how gentle, how good, how faithful, how meek, how temperate you are and there is some indication of the answer.

If you're like me you'll cringe knowing how far short of these marks we are. Maybe you're not like me and glory to God for that.

I read or heard once that the closer we get to the light the more dark corners the light shines into revealing the dust and the dirt, the hidden cobwebs. It's true. The indwelling of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit are such wonderful things, in fact they are points of light revealing the dust and dirt, the cobwebs and swampy dankness in our live and letting us know not to despair as some want to do (yes, it's very, very, very easy to despair) we see the dirt and how much easier can it get than to hide dirt rather than clean it up? Cover it up with the rug, push it under the bed, tuck it aside because it's easier and we don't have to look at it. That's just it...we don't want to see the darkness and dirtiness of our lives, so it's easier to keep the dirt hidden and be satisfied with the way we are because anything else means a struggle.

Am I advocating working for salvation? NO. I never do and never will. Salvation comes by the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus who will give His Holy Spirit to us, the same Holy Spirit whose fruit are all those wonderful things we're talking about.

When the Holy Spirit reveals our shortcomings, our failings it's not so we hide from them and despair of ever being different, it's to encourage us to get closer ever closer to the One and Only person who can ever make us clean. The work we do is the effort we make to fall at the feet of Jesus and cling to Him, to His righteousness, His love.

Don't despair when the darkness and dirt in your life is revealed, we have to thank and praise God for allowing us to see our failings and recognize our need of Him.

May the Lord our God, our Savior, our Redeemer have mercy upon us all. May the Holy Spirit dwell with us and may the fruits of the indwelling be realized in us. When the darkness of our shortcomings rise up harshly let it be to remind us to cling tighter to the cross, to our Hope. The Holy Spirit will work within us, by the grace of God let us not try to push Him away and keep our darkness hidden but praise God now and always. May the Light shine ever brighter upon us leading us to the source of that Light, that Life, to Jesus.

By His Grace!
Amen